Misc Updates

This is sort of a mini-newsletter, since this is a busy time of year for us I wanted to give you some updates.

### Conference

Since opening registration last week, we’ve had conference signups from as far away as Germany. In addition to the notable [speakers](http://www.seasteading.org/interact/events/conference09#speakers) we announced then, I wanted to mention that there will be an [Unconference](http://www.seasteading.org/interact/events/conference09#unconference) with a variety of short talks from attendees, as well as a number of talks from TSI staff and community members such as: Patri on [Ephemerisle](http://ephemerisle.org/), James & Patri on TSI Strategy & Status, Mikolaj Habryn on Condo Cruise Ships, Eelco Hoogendorn on Seastead Structure Design, and Will Chamberlain on Thinking Structurally About Government. More details and registration on [the conference page](http://www.seasteading.org/interact/events/conference09).

### Ephemerisle

The excitement is building – people are coming from Wisconsin, New York, and Germany. The first central platform segments were built and tested this past weekend at [Camp Tipsy](http://camptipsy.wordpress.com/), where 3 sections held a trailer and 30 people. On the right is a picture of them under construction (click for higher resolution). Greg has posted on the Ephemerisle Blog about [Boat & Structure Building Classes](http://www.ephemerisle.org/blog/?p=12), and [Free Money](http://www.ephemerisle.org/blog/?p=17) (about the Ephemerisle Grant Program). Patri will be hosting an Ephemerisle talk/social/brainstorming/whatever session on Friday afternoon as part of [Playagon’s Mind Expansions & Future Salons](http://playagon.pbworks.com/Mind-Expansion). Also a Seasteading Salon on Thursday afternoon, see [the website](http://playagon.pbworks.com/Mind-Expansion) for a more detailed schedule. A number of TSI staff & volunteers will be camping with Future Camp, and we hope to see some of you on the playa.

### Vote With Your Wallet

We continue to make progress on our project-based fundraising initiatives. We are currently spending much of our time on Ephemerisle & Conference planning, after the events we’re going to focus more on engineering, business, and other initiatives such as the new book. So please keep the donations coming to help us fund internships in these areas. Progress so far, over 3 weeks:

### Businesses

[](http://www.med.navy.mil/sites/usnsmercy/Pages/default.aspx)
I toured the [USNS Mercy](http://www.med.navy.mil/sites/usnsmercy/Pages/default.aspx) last week (a Navy/MSC hospital ship), but haven’t had a chance to write it up yet.